Dell have released a new version of their Alienware 13 machine although they've changed it considerably from the previous two iterations, before it was a semi-ultralight machine that could offer much higher performance through an external graphics card. The new machine is a mini-DTR offering i5 and i7 quad cores with a beefy GTX 1060 graphics card, it keeps a good range of ports and still has a connector for the external graphics card. It's been beefed up quite a bit for additional cooling which adds to the size and weight but that seems better than having a machine too thin to adequately cool its own hardware although they've opted for m2 SSD's only - no room for a 2.5in drive. While SSD's are superior in most ways they're still expensive for capacity and the triple A games this laptop is designed to play are massive, most of the base specs are only 180GB which is ridiculous when titles like Doom3 and Gears of War 4 are around 75GB installs.

I'm tempted by the i5 spec with the OLED screen upgrade although there's the question of waiting for it on the Outlet, I've been keeping an eye on any Outlet bargains on desktops but Outlet prices don't seem great at the moment. I was looking at a scratch and dent Aurora R5 (which should be the cheapest) for £1500 but the identical spec bar the blu-ray writer was £1700, the bigger Area 51's don't seem to have had any good prices either. By comparison my current PC was £1300 on the Outlet and £2500 for the same spec on the main site.

I'm tempted by the Razer blade to be honest. I did love my alienware, but felt that my MSI stealth was great at being 22mm thin! And with that 1060 being such a good card that alienware might get thinner.

But with the new 1050 being a good bang for buck, they;re talking about sub $1000 gaming laptops next. so that might be worth waiting for?

The MSI is equivalently far less powerful than the Alienware though, its graphics card was simply a slightly higher clocked older mobile card whereas the AW's 1060 is effectively a desktop-class card now Nvidia have changed their approach to mobile graphics cards. Plus I wouldn't want a laptop like this to be thin as all it does is compromise its cooling performance making it run hot and loud, it's a relief for a change that Dell have given the machine the space it needs for a proper cooling system. I sent my XPS 13 back as it was far too thin even for its ULV processor, the fan was always intrusive and the underside was too hot to use on a lap. I'm disappointed the Latitude 12 I bought isn't as bad but still suffers similar problems because it's too thin for its hardware, the AW13 apparently can be used on a lap and its fan noise isn't too intrusive.

I wouldn't want to go lower than a 1060, I was originally planning a 1070 but I'd rather the slightly smaller form factor of the AW13.

You can surely see the advantage of a deeper chassis then, this has a DTR class graphics card yet can cool enough to be on a lap - I just don't see the point in having a laptop so thin it can't fit a sufficient cooling system.

A machine like this would be purely for portable use as I have a much more powerful desktop PC if I want to use a desk.

I don't have an issue with thin and light laptops but just ones that are too thin for their own hardware which seems to be an irritating trend at the moment - when the AW 13 has adequate cooling for a change, I don't know why you'd want it to be thinner which would compromise it as a laptop.